Apple iOS developers might want to start focusing their energies on building appsfor Asian countries. According to a Distimo report, China is now the number two market for the App Store in terms of total download volume.
Although the U.S. retains its title as the biggest market, Distimo's report shows that there has been meteoric growth in China, as well as the rest of Asia, over the past six months. However, there has been a decrease in download volume in certain Western countries, like France and Germany.
For example, South Korea has a very high download volume, given the country's small size. This is significant in light of the fact that South Korea's App Store lacks a gaming category, which Distimo previously found to be the largest single app classification in the U.S. and Europe.
Asia still trails the Western world when it comes to paid app downloads; revenue from paid apps is about a third higher in the U.S. than it is in Asia. Distimo found iOS users in the Asian market to be much more "price sensitive."
Distimo also noted that in-app purchases haven't yet caught on in Asia. Only 34 percent of revenue from the 200 highest grossing apps came from applications that offer in-app purchases in China, whereas in the U.S., that figure is 68 percent.
As far as China goes, it's no surprise that the market for iOS apps has expanded so significantly. Demand for Apple products there has climbed steadily since the first Apple Store opened in Beijing in 2008. In its first quarter earnings call last month, Apple revealed that quarterly revenue in China quadrupled, soaring to $2.6 billion, 10 percent of Apple's total revenue.
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